Telegraph system.



W. H. SHEPHARD & A. E. McKECHNIE.

TELEGRAPH SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 4, 1915.

1,156,043. Patented Oct. 5,1915.

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W. H. SHEPHARD & A. E. McKECHNlE.

TELEGRAPH SYSTEM.

Patented Oct. 5, 1915.

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W. H. SHEPHARD & A. E. McKECHNIE.

TELEGRAPH SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 4, 1915.

Patented Oct. 5, 1915.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM HENRY SHEPHABD AND ARCHIBALD EDWARD MOKECHNIE, OF BAYSWATEB,

-' LONDON, ENGLAND.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' TELEGRAPH/SYSTEM.

Patented Oct. 5, 1915.

I Application filed March '4, 1915. Serial No. 12,232.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, WILLIAM HENRY SHEPHARD and ARCHIBALD EDWARD MoKEoH-Nm, both subjects of the King of Great Britain, residing, respectively,at 3 Crown Court, Old Broad street, and 5 Colville Terrace, Bayswater,both in the county of London,

England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in TelegraphSystems, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to line or wireless telegraph systems and has forits chief object to provide a selector which will become operative towork an alarm device or perform any other desired operation only when aredetermined signal is received.

11 order that the said invention may be clearly understood and readilycarried into efiect we will now proceed to describe the same more fullywith reference to the accompanying drawings in which:-

Figure 1 is a. vertical section of selecting apparatus embodying theinvention, the surrounding casing being omitted for the sake ofclearness. Figs. 2 and 3 are top and bottom plan views thereofrespectively, Fig. 4 is a side elevation of a portion of the selectingapparatus looking in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 5is a diagram showing the electro-magnets and relative electricalconnections and associated parts. Fig. 6 is a detail of a deflectorhereinafter referred to. Fig. 7 is a detail of one of the inner fixedbrushes of the apparatus. Fig. 8 is an end elevation and Fig. 9 is avertical section taken at right angles thereto of an alternative form ofelectric'switch for controlling the aforesaid deflector. Fig. 10 is adiagram showing a modified arrangement of the electro-magnets andrelative parts. v

Referring first more particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, the contact points ain the example shown are arranged on one face of each of a number ofmembers I) made of any suitable insulating material and constituting aring 0, each of said members being capable of being inverted and adaptedto be held stationary within corresponding grooves in a metallic ring 03by means of an annular cover is to render say an alarm deviceoperative,-

the points would be arranged in succession as follows :Three on one faceof the ring to represent the three dots of the letter S, three on theother face to represent the three dashes of the letter O, and then threeon the first mentioned face to again represent the letter S. In order toprevent the alarm dev1ce becoming operative when a word contaming S. O.S. is received we may if desired arrange the agparatus to work with theletters O. S. or S. O. S. S. O. or the like, the distress slgnal orother call always being repeated several times by the transmittingstation. I

The brushes f are carried by an insulated d1sk g which rotates step bystep when the recelving clrcuit becomes operative, preferably by meansof a pawl 72. and ratchet wheel 6 the former being actuated by thearmature 7 of an electromagnet k arranged within said circuit. Thecontact points a and brushes f may be permanently and momentarilycoupled electrically in pairs respectively, so that it is necessary foreach polntto be in contact with abrush'before the circuit through thepoints and the alarm device is coinpleted.

As shown in Fig. 2, the contact points are electrlcally coupled, as atZ, in pairs and a brush 7 is adapted to engage with each con tact pointa, the brushes f being connected at their inner ends to the insulateddisk 9 by means of screws m the inner ends a of which are adapted toengage with the limbs of fork-like brushes 7 (Figs. 1, 2 and 7 securedat their outer ends to a fixed ring-p of insulating material. Theterminals g, r are arranged within a circuit including the alarm devicenot shown.

In order that the brushes 7 may be deflected to one side or other of thering when a message is being received we provide a deflector 8 (Figs. 2,5 and 6) which moves the brushes in one direction when a dot is receivedand in thereverse direction when adash is received. Each of the brushesf is thus held on one side or the other of the ring carrying the contactpoints a, and it is only when the particular message is received towhich the contact points are set that the circuit is completed tooperate the alarm dififerently'for dots and for dashes as aforesaid, weprovide means wheifgby if the re-- ceiving circuit is operative for morethan say a tenth .ofa second the deflector will be moved from its normalposition into one' which will move the brush contiguous thereto to theside of the ring carrying the contact points representing the dashes.-For this purpose the deflector ,9 may be under the control of anelectromagnet tthe circuit through which is controlled by a switch.

This switch is connected through a delayed action or inertiacontrivancegvith the armature of the electromagnetic 'o r solenoidarranged m the receiving circuit.

ally and rotatably mounted a rotatable disk w serving as a balance,Wheel when driven by said spindle, which is rotated through the mediumof a spiral spring 51 one end of which isattached to the spindle and theother end of which-is attached to a lug e on a second disk (1 which isangularlyadjustable relatively to a fixed carrier 6 and adapted to besecured thereto after the manner of a watch regulator. Alternatively, asshown in Figs. 8 and 9, the switch may comprise a blade'spring a securedat d to a bracket 6', the pressure exerted by which spring on the end ofa spindle j hereinafter referred to may be regulated by an adjustingscrew 9' threaded into and passing through a bearing h on said bracket.The said spring 0 is adapted to be moved relatively to an adjustingelectrical contact screw 2" through the medium of the armature of theaforesaid electromagnet l0 acting at 3" on the end of a spindle it oneend of which passes through a fixed bearing Z and the other end of whichpasses through the bracket 6 and engages the blade spring 0'. Secured tothe spindle is soas to be capable of moving axially therewith is a thindisk Z, which disk is fitted within a chamber m formed in the bracket 6so as to constitute a kind of dash pot. The admission of air isregulated by a pivoted shutter 11/ movable relatively to an opening 0'lead ing to the chamber m, while the exit of the air is permitted bymeans of a non return flap valve p which is capable of being movedoutwardly by the air pressure created within the chamber m by the diskZ" so as to uncover a similar opening beneath flapvalve p and leadingfrom said chamber. By the means just described if the electromagnet isisoperative for more than the predetermined length of time the switch isactuated and the deflector s is shifted to the desired position asaforesaid, said deflector As shown more particularly in Figs. 3

Me ea-e I being secured, for instance, to a spindle a operable byinterconnected levers 5 from the pivot pin of the armature of theelectromagnet t, an opening being formed at a to permit the levers to beoperated. The ring may be formed with a: gap 1'" (Figs. 2 and 6) toenable the brushes 7 to resume their normal position before they againcome into contact with the deflector, as indicated inFigaG."

' It will be understood that the disposition and arrangement of .the'armature of the electromagnet k in relation to the said switch is suchthat the -'latter'is not opened bv the movement of the armature untilthe brush passing into the gap 1" v has been brought over or under thedeflector s. For

' this purpose, when the said switch is closed,

a predetermined amount of. clearance is afforded between thearmature jand that end of the element it which does not engage with the contactscrew '0. r

Means may also be provided whereby the relatively long spaces betweeneach of the characters representing the letters or words of the code aredifl'e'rentiated'from the short spaces between. the dots and dashesconstituting the characters of the code. For this purpose there may beemployed as shown in Fig. 10, an electric switch a which is adapted tobe controlled by. a delayed action or inertia contrivance similar to thedisk 00, already described and is capable of being actuated by thearmature j of the electromagnet k whenever a dot or dash is received. v

In circuit with the switch a is an electromagnet c which serves eachtime it is energized to rotatethe'ratchet wheel 2' to the extent of onetooth by means of a pawl d associated with the armature e of theelectromagnet 0 When the pawl 0Z has rotated the ratchet wheel a" to thedesired extent, the circuit f containing the electro-magnet c is brokenand the latter is deenergized. This may be effected by providing in thecircuit f a switch g which may include an arm 15, with which the lowerend of the armature e engages when said armature is attracted, therebycausing .a contact i on the switch to be disengaged from a relativelyfixed contact 1' When the armature j is attracted, the switch a isopened and 6 to be attracted against the action of a spring Z whereuponthe ratchet wheel 5 is rotated to the extent of one tooth by means ofthe pawl (1 If, however, the period during which the armature j remainsat rest is so short (corresponding to the space between the dots anddashes of a letter) that the delayed action or inertia contrivance b isnot permitted to effect the closing of the switch a no movement of theratchet wheel 6 and consequently of the brushes 7 (Figs. 1 and 2) willtake place between the successive movements of the ratchet wheel underthe influence of the pawl h. In setting the aforesaid contact points torepresent a predetermined code signal, the relatively long spacesbetween the characters representing the letters or words of the code maybe provided for by leaving between electrically connected adjoiningcontact points sections of suitable width which are not electricallyconnected.

What we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is 1. In a telegraph system, receiving apparatus comprising 'anumber of contact points capable of being arranged in accordance with apredetermined signal, a number of brushes movable relatively to thecontact points, a member adapted to cause the brushes to be deflected toone side or other of the contact points, and electrically controlleddevices including a delayed action contrivance for actuating saidmember, said devices being rendered operative when the predeterminedsignal isreceived.

2. In a telegraph system, receiving apparatus comprising a number ofcontact points capable of being arranged in accordance with apredetermined signal, a number of brushes movable relatively to thecontact points, a member adapted to cause the brushes to be deflected toone side or other of the contact points, and electrically controlleddevices including a delayed action contrivance for actuating saidmember, said devices being rendered operative when the predeterminedsignal is received and said delayed action contrivance being so arrangedrelatively to the said electrically controlled devices as to insure thata brush moving toward and contiguous to the deflecting member will bebrought into position at one side or other of the deflecting memberbefore the latter is actuated.

3. In a telegraph system, receiving apparatus comprising a ring, anumber of contact points carried by said ring, said contact points beingcapable of being arranged in accordance with a predetermined signal, anumber of brushes movable relatively to the contact points, a memberadapted to cause the brushes to be deflected to one side or other of thecontact points, and electrically controlled devices including a delayedaction contrivance for actuating said memcause the brushes to bedeflected to one side or other of the contact points, and electricallycontrolled devices including a delayed action contrivance for actuatingsaid member, said devices being rendered operative when thepredetermined signal is received and said delayed action contrivancebeing so arranged relatively to the said electrically operated devicesas to insure that a brush entering said gap will be brought intoposit1on at one side or other of the deflecting member before the latteris actuated.

5. In a telegraph system, receiving apparatus comprising a number ofcontact points capable of being arranged in accordance with apredetermined signal, a number of brushes movable relatively to thecontact points, and means comprising a delayed action contrivance forcontrolling the movement of the brushes whereby the relatively longspaces between the characters of the code are differentiated from theshort spaces between the dots and dashes constituting the saidcharacters.

6. In a telegraph system, receiving apparatus comprising a number ofcontact points capable 'of being arranged in accordance with apredetermined signal, a number of brushes movable relatively to thecontact points, and means for controlling the movement of the brushes,said means comprisin a plurality of electric switches, a delayed actioncontrivance associated with one of said switches, an electricallyoperated device adapted to rotate the brushes and a second electricallyoperated device adapted to rotate the brushes, the last mentioned devicebeing capable of controlling the other electrically operated devicethrough the medium of the said switches.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of twowitnesses.

WILLIAM HENRY SHEPHARD. ARGHIBALD EDWARD MGKEGHNIE.

